Award in Digital Marketing & Social Media for SMEs

The Digital Marketing and Social Media for SMEs course seeks to provide students with the skills necessary for an entrepreneur to understand the role of digital marketing and the manner in which social media can be successfully utilised by SMEs to promote and grow their activities. It seeks to identify best practice and provide an overview of current social media tools and services that are available to entrepreneurs and managers of SMEs to drive the start-up or established organisation. The course enables students to use the more advanced analytical packages allowing them to develop, implement and monitor their own campaigns on the more popular social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Linked-In. The focus throughout the programme is the importance of the relevance and content of the social media campaigns ensuring that the SME organisation can mobilise its limited resources to leverage this medium and reach out to the target market segments required. The emphasis is on the understanding of the social media infrastructure and its use in local or international campaigns. 

 Sessions Covered: 

• Session 1 – Introduction to Digital Marketing
• Session 2 – Digital Marketing Environment
• Session 3 – Introduction to Digital marketing macro environment
• Session 4 – Setting digital marketing strategy
• Session 5 – Marketing Mix
• Session 6 – Marketing Mix Part 2
• Session 7 – Customer Relationship Management
• Session 8 – Website Creation
• Session 9 – Characteristics of Digital Media
• Session 10 – Search Engine Optimisation
• Session 11 – Advertising
• Session 12 – Creating a performance management system
• Session 13 – Social media fundamentals
• Session 14 – Social networks – Facebook
• Session 15 – Social networks – LinkedIn
• Session 16 – Social networks – Instagram
• Session 17 – Social Networks – Twitter & YouTube
• Session 18 – Social Networks – Other

Hours of Total Learning for this module:

• Contact Hours: 58
• Self-Study Hours: 128
• Assessment Hours: 14
• Total Learning Hours: 200

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the module/unit the learner will have acquired the following skills:

1. Apply knowledge of digital marketing to satisfy local and international online market entry requirements.
2. Applying e-business concepts and value creation to analyse e-business models. Use appropriate concept of e-business models in digital marketing.
3. Design and control digital and social media campaigns to fit in the existing marketing strategy.
4. Apply theories of B2C and B2B buying behaviour in the decision-making process in an online environment.
5. Select the optimal distribution channel in the local and foreign markets.
6. Design an affiliate programme and use online tools for its implementation.
7. Use the various analytical tools for evaluation of achievement marketing campaign goals.

Each module will be assessed based on the following components:

1. Quality of Contributions in Forums: 30%
   • Evaluation of participation and the quality of insights shared in online discussion forums.
2. Quality of Contributions in Tutorials: 20%
   • Assessment of engagement and contributions during tutorial sessions.
3. Research-Based Assignments: 50%
   • Completion and quality of research-based assignments that demonstrate understanding and application of the course material.

Passing Criteria:

• Students must achieve an aggregate of 50% or higher across the three components to pass each module.

Scholarship Schemes for Maltese residents:

• MySkills Scheme: Malta residents are eligible for up to 80% reimbursement, capped at €5,000, subject to eligibility criteria. International students would be able to apply for the MySkills Scheme once they obtain their Student Temporary Residence Card (TRC). (For individual modules only)
• Get Qualified Scheme ( Scheme available for Maltese residents ) – 70% refund of course fee as a tax rebate